But there is plenty in the public record that has nothing to do with the media or however they spun it. I think by the last count there were 17 people associated with the campaign who were talking to Russians, people connected to Russians, and they lied about all of it. The first line way back when was zero contact with Russians, at all. Now we are at the "so what if they did it" point of it.
The media didn't make them change the RNC platform. The media didn't make Trump hire Manafort. The media didn't make Trump go on TV and ask Russia to find Hillary's emails. They didn't make them take a meeting in Trump tower, and they didn't make them make up a story about adoptions when the story broke. The media didn't make Flynn tell Russia to stand down, and they didn't make him lie about it. They didn't make Trump fire Comey and they didn't make him go on TV and say it was because of Russia.
Maybe it was nothing, maybe they've been lying about all of this because they didn't want everyone to know they planned to put a Trump tower in Moscow. But, they met with them, they had Stone talk to Wikileaks to find out about the releases, and they lied about it. The narrative exists because of their actions. Complaining about the media is like whining about the refs throwing a bunch of flags when the plan is to hold on every play.